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| No: 49a |
Mar 2010
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issue Blog versions of special newsletters are also available: 
 The National Archives to retain a presence in Adelaide—myth or reality? On 13 November 2009 the Director of the National Archives in Canberra announced the closing of the National Archives offices in Darwin, Adelaide and Hobart to save money. These offices were targeted because they had the least number of visitors. The decision was taken without consultation with the Central Consultative Forum or the State Consultative Fora and they were as surprised by the move as anyone else. The closure was further justified by the fact that most public access for the records held by the NAA was online and, in the case of Adelaide, the current lease would expire in March 2011. Of course much of the argument was based on usage statistics and they can be manipulated to suit the argument. For example the cost of operating the Adelaide Office in terms of visitors means that every visitor costs the NAA $3000. Rather expensive, but using the same figures for the head office in Canberra reveals a cost per visitor of $3500 and yet no one has suggested closing Canberra! Apart from the campaign by this newsletter, the issue was taken up by a number of individuals and organisations, some exclusively, like this newsletter, campaigning online. A few were lucky to receive a response to their letters but these were all disappointing in that they completely ignored the basic objections, many of which have been previously outlined in this series of newsletters. Some of the significant features of the campaign included efforts by Ann Picot with the nation-wide petition, the organising of protests outside the NAA office on 23 Feb 2010 by Pauline Payne and the campaign conducted by The Friends of SA’s Archives [FoSAA] in conjunction with the SA History Council [SAHC] president, former premier of SA, John Bannon. We suspect that the behind the scene efforts by John Bannon was one key to the outcome of the campaign. He met up with the Prime Minister at the Sydney Cricket Test and raised the matter with him. He also spoke to Labor Party power brokers and we understand that when the matter was raised in Cabinet, no less than five Ministers opposed the closures. The motion put forward by the Adelaide Consultative Forum advising against the closing of the office in Adelaide clearly demonstrated that the very people hand-picked by the NAA to give them good advice were totally opposed to the move. Even as late as the Community Cabinet meeting in Adelaide on 20 January 2010 the cause seemed lost given the reception John Bannon received from the Minister, Joe Ludwig, it is possible that the NAA management was still unmoved. Meanwhile a number of letters and articles objecting to the closing of the Archives in Adelaide appeared in The Advertiser and elsewhere from people including Alexander Downer, John Bannon, Jack Cross and others. ABC Television decided to make a national program on the closing in SA, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. On 29 January 2010 they interviewed local historian Graham Jaunay in depth at his office—the film was eventually shown on The 7:30 Report on 23 February 2010. Kylie Percival, representing the professional archivists body in SA, was also interviewed on radio and television. As the protesters gathered outside the Adelaide Office of the NAA on 23 February 2010 a Media Release was issued by Senator Joe Ludwig confirming the previous day’s mid-day ABC news on radio indicating that the Minister might be shifting his ground. The Rudd Government today announced the National Archives of Australia would maintain face-to-face services in Adelaide. “Australia’s National Archives play a vital role in keeping the political, social and cultural history of Australia alive,” the Minister with responsibility for the National Archives, Senator Joe Ludwig, said. “The Rudd Government has listened to community concerns, and the National Archives will maintain a local presence in each state and territory. Last financial year there were only 720 visits to the Adelaide reading room compared to 22,290 visits nationally, while more than 1.9 million records were accessed online.” Similar arrangements will be put in place in Darwin and Hobart, and the Government will encourage other National Archives offices to consider options for co-location. The timing of media release coincided with a demonstration (organised by Pauline Payne) seemed almost too good to be true. Just what caused such an overnight turn-around? Perhaps the behind the scenes efforts had some effect in convincing five Ministers to support non-closure and this made the difference. In the previous newsletter we issued a warning that this media release should not be seen as a victory. An examination of the release does not go into any detail on how the NAA management intends to fulfill their undertaking. The writer knows that process in train before the announcement is still active. The Adelaide staff has been approached about the future of their jobs and so we know that the collective experience of these people is to be lost. We know that State Records and the State Library lack space for the material still held by the NAA Adelaide Office. We know that the NAA management’s position on the transfer of records to state hands is restricted to pre-1901 material and the hand-over is to be at no cost to the NAA. All this suggests that the battle has yet to be won. If this is to be a victory, then the NAA management still has some way to go. Some campaigners seem to think that we are only in the first stage and we need take up the issue of the 90% (some 30 km) of documents already transferred out of SA in 2001 being returned to SA. I suspect we need to win the current fight first! |
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